Large industrial fire emergencies are few and far between, but when they happen they can be devastating events that aren't forgotten easily. That's the case with the 1990 explosion at a facility near Houston that leveled an area the size of a city block and killed 17 people.

Fire chiefs for an industrial facility hope and pray that their emergency response brigades are ready for a major incident. They work hard to prepare those brigades, requiring them to attend regular training sessions at the plant and sending them periodically to major training facilities to experience large-scale evolutions. Those chiefs equip them with the highest-quality personal protective equipment that can be purchased and drill them until they can don that equipment in a matter of seconds.

I am proud to have served as the fire chief for a large chemical plant that covered 300 acres on the Texas Gulf coast and employed more than 1,500 workers. I am proud of the emergency response brigade under my command, a group that epitomized the commitment and professionalism every chief hopes for. My brigade was 100-strong, composed entirely of volunteers who were dedicated to the protection of their co-workers, the plant's facilities and the surrounding community.

We were well-equipped with a foam pumper, numerous monitors, fixed systems, and other various specialized industrial brigade components. More significantly, we had been fortunate in that previous incidents at the plant had been relatively minor and quickly mitigated; the brigade had demonstrated its skills and knowledge to the point that I was confident we could handle any emergency. Sometimes success makes it difficult to imagine just how suddenly and gravely dangerous our jobs can be.

Initial response

July 5, 1990, was an ordinary, uneventful day, and as afternoon became evening there were no indications that the night would be anything other than routine. At about 11 p.m. I heard an explosion from the direction of the plant while I was brushing my teeth. I started toward the phone to check in with our security officer, but almost immediately my phone began to ring, my pager began to beep, and someone called me on the plant radio.

I quickly learned the explosion was at the plant and that the boiler and utility area were in flames. I dressed quickly and left the house, trying continually to contact my on-shift fire brigade leader to get his assessment. Although I lived only a few miles from the plant, you would not believe how many thoughts can run through your head when you have no information and can only speculate about how serious a situation might be. Unable to contact my brigade leader, I was left to imagine the worst and to pray that my team was safe and prepared to respond.

As I came into sight of the plant, flames covered a large area, engulfing the utility area and revealing the scope of the incident. We faced a long night, but I still didn't know just how long that night would be. I turned onto the plant road, followed by one of my fire and safety personnel and the fire chief from a neighboring plant; both had heard the explosion and the calls to me on the plant radio. At the plant fire station I asked the neighboring chief for assistance from his emergency response brigade.

Gathering our personal protective equipment, we made our way to the fire scene, and my worst fears were confirmed. One of the operations personnel from the area met me on my way in and told me that personnel had been in the area at the time of the explosion. I called again for my brigade leader, and again got no response. I decided at this point to call on our mutual aid organization for assistance. The plant's brigade was very lucky to be a member of the Channel Industries Mutual Aid group, one of the largest such organizations on the Gulf coast: In short order I had the firefighters and equipment at my disposal to handle the largest imaginable incident.

We set up staging at the plant's main entrance as a means of controlling access to the scene, and then began to establish water streams for cooling, apply foam to the large spill fire area and remotely isolate the piping that extended into the incident area. At the same time, the loss of instrument air and nitrogen to the operating units put the plant at risk of another incident, so personnel were working to stop the plant's operations entirely.

In the midst of these initial mitigation efforts, I finally was able to contact the 20 members of my on-shift brigade, who were scattered in disarray around the plant, and assemble them in one location. As these members were volunteers, not full-time firefighters, their day-to-day work made their knowledge of plant operations more valuable than their firefighting skills, especially given the impressive number of available mutual aid firefighters. With that in mind, I released the brigade members to return to their operating units and assist with the emergency shutdown procedures under way.

During an incident of this magnitude, the fire chief's concerns are not just the immediate incident factors but also the impact the incident may have on the rest of the plant and on the surrounding community. Luckily, the wind direction was blowing away from the nearby community, somewhat easing the risk of outside exposure.

The risk of contaminating a nearby river where the plant discharged storm water was another matter. The precipitating cause of the incident was an explosion in a large tank that contained plant wastewater and hydrocarbons. The explosion caused considerable damage to the plant utilities area and sent burning hydrocarbons in the plant storm water ditches toward the plant outfall and, in turn, toward a major river. One of our major successes during this incident was to block the outfall and contain all contaminants within the confines of the plant.

Difficult recovery

As we began to make some progress toward containing the fire and at last were able to enter the involved area, it quickly became clear that the operations employee who told me he thought personnel might have been in the area of the explosion had been right.

Our recon team's first sweep through the area found 12 bodies in the rubble. It seemed that each time a recon team passed through the area after that, another body was found, and the count climbed until we reached 17. It was incredibly difficult to bear the weight of this news and maintain the impassive composure necessary to my role as fire chief.

Municipal firefighters are unlikely to know the victims of the incident they are combating; industrial firefighters, on the other hand, are very likely to know the victims as co-workers, colleagues and friends. In this case, I knew 16 of the 17 casualties personally, some as close friends, some as acquaintances, and all as members of the company family that we fostered. Losing so many friends at one time has had a lasting impact on me and on other plant personnel. After 14 years, July 5 continues to be a somber day for me.

After our initial shock to discover that so many of our colleagues died in the explosion, we contained the spill fire area and made extinguishment. We identified the pipelines that were feeding the pressure fires and made remote isolations, and we continued to provide cooling to protect nearby exposures. We then waited for the pipelines to depressurize and for the remaining fires to go out. This waiting seemed to take an eternity, as the incident was under control at this point and we had time to dwell on our desire to enter the area and recover our fallen.

In total, the actual fire scene lasted about six hours between the explosion at 11:15 p.m. and final extinguishment at 5:30 a.m. When we were able to begin the grisly task of mapping the scene and recovering the bodies, I could tell that plant responders still on scene were deeply affected by the loss of their co-workers. As fire chief I felt responsible for leading the identification and removal efforts and remaining strong, but I excused the rest of our plant's responders from the area. I am greatly appreciative of the mutual aid responders who volunteered to perform our recovery efforts. One by one we mapped the location of each victim, identified them by driver's license and removed them to waiting mortuary vehicles. When the last of the bodies was removed, we established a security perimeter and released all response personnel from the scene.

From start to finish this incident took 18 of the longest hours I have ever spent on a fire scene. The ensuing investigation and area cleanup lasted several more weeks, and security was maintained the entire time. The plant was safely shut down and remained dormant for many months, during which time plant personnel seemed to be living under a shroud that lifted only when the plant was up and running again. As long as the plant was dormant, everyone seemed to be in a holding pattern, but when the plant came back online it seemed to give everyone permission to pick up their lives and move on.

Incident review

Days after the explosion I completed an action report of the incident and our response. The following lessons are what I consider to be the most important to have emerged from this industrial firefighting incident.

1. Psychological trauma

   No matter how well-trained your brigade may be, and no matter how well they respond to minor incidents under light duress, you cannot really know how they will react to a large incident involving the deaths of their friends. My brigade was a well-trained group that I knew could handle any type of emergency, but I did not anticipate the mental anguish they would suffer in losing so many of their colleagues. You can't expect brigades to perform at their demonstrated best under such trauma.

2. Mutual aid agencies

   Always maintain a close relationship with mutual aid agencies, because you can't know in advance the degree to which you may need to depend on them. Make sure they understand your standard operating procedures so they can integrate smoothly into your operations and work well in your system. This will ensure the safety and efficiency of your operations should you need their assistance.

3. Municipal fire departments

   Make sure that the local fire departments understand the role they're to play during plant emergencies, and do not forget that they are always willing to assist your efforts. The more you can delegate during a large-scale incident, the more you as plant fire chief can concentrate on the primary strategy of extinguishing the fire.

   The local fire department performed several vital functions during this incident:

   • The fire chief provided enormous assistance with the county fire marshal's office.
   • The local municipal fire department assumed all EMS operations at my direction. They brought in several ambulances and paramedics.
   • The local municipal fire department set up a rehab area in addition to their EMS duties.
4. Emergency operations center

   During a large incident, the EOC's help is invaluable in handling logistics, notifications and more. During our incident, the EOC's ability to absorb media attention freed me to concentrate on mitigation efforts.

5. Fixed systems backup

   Do not rely too much on fixed plant fire systems. Any large explosion inside a processing plant will damage or even disable the fixed systems, so make sure you have a backup plan for the very real likelihood that fixed systems won't help.

The night of July 5, 1990, will always weigh heavily on my mind and in my heart. I lost some good friends that night, friends whose memories will always be with me. At the same time, I made some good friends among the mutual aid responders who came to my assistance. They were my true heroes — without them I may not have come through this tragedy as well as I did.

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Robert Moore is currently the private sector program manager for the Texas Engineering Extension Service, Emergency Services Training Institute, Texas A&M University. Moore worked for a large major chemical company for 21 years in fire and safety and served as the fire chief. He was one of 15 specialists in Houston's Channel Industries Mutual Aid group, which covers the city's ship channel and Industry. He is a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers and a certified safety professional.